Kent Bush: Campaign against Electoral College was fun

I never entertained the idea that my running mate and I would win as official write-in candidates for President, but I never expected our loss to be this spectacular.

We still don’t know our final total statewide but one would have to assume that our greatest level of success would come in the county in which we live.

Our greatest level of success resulted in 44 votes here. I appreciate every one of those. But if there would have been any fewer of them I would have to demand a recount in my own house.

The best thing to do when something dies as tragically as my campaign against the Electoral College has is to do an autopsy to try to prevent it from happening again.

The first thing I want to consider is why those 44 people chose to write in our names. At least one voted for me because she has been married to me for almost 15 years and her birthday and Christmas are coming up soon. She was compelled.

Another was on the ticket with me and he brought along a spouse, as well. A few more actually work for me although my vote total is an apparent indictment of the support I received from inside my office buildings. I also had a few friends – yes, I still have a few even though I write more than 150 columns per year – who supported me because they are good friends.

But there were a few – not many, but a few – who got it. They wanted to make a statement and this write-in candidacy was a vehicle our democracy provides for them to make the statement that the Electoral College cheapens Kansas votes.

I appreciate all of these people for their support. From our local coffee shop who hosted our “convention” on a Monday morning to the locally owned Dairy Queen franchise that let us crash their restaurant to have a “watch party” on election night, I appreciate the support everyone gave us.

For the other gozillion of you who didn’t vote for me, I can imagine there were more than a few reasons.

Some people didn’t want to miss the chance to vote for Mitt Romney or Barack Obama. I get that. Elections are a big deal. The statement they chose to make was that their candidate should win Kansas.

Others may have been concerned about writing in a candidate. It is not a normal election year activity for most people. I get that, too.

Some people didn’t understand or believe that writing in Bush-Natvig would make a statement about the Electoral College. Other people understood but didn’t want to make that statement.

You can’t be upset with people who disagree with you. Obama won what many people call a landslide, but almost half the voters in America clicked the box beside Romney.

Everyone won’t agree with you.

And finally, I am sure there were more than a few people who decided not to vote for me because they don’t like me. I know it is hard to believe, but some people have found a way not to like me personally. I don’t understand it but many of them express it very clearly – and sometimes, very loudly.

In the end, I wrote 14 columns over about 3 months. We drove a minivan in a parade and drank some coffee and ate some ice cream.

It was fun.

I hope even if you didn’t write us in, you learned something about the system we use to elect our President. If you voted for us, I hope you enjoyed the process as much as we did. If you didn’t, I hope my pain and humiliation makes your weekend better.

In the end, it was a good race. In every race, someone loses.

That someone, in this case, was me.

But we had fun and ran for President.

I don’t know if it is something I will put on my headstone, but it will definitely make an interesting story for new friends in the future.